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Letter to the Boston editor: April 13, 2007

Another inconvenient truth
In “Can McCain Make It Work?” (Presidential Tote Board, April 6), you write: “[I]n 2000 — when Ralph Nader’s candidacy cost Al Gore the presidency.” That’s bullshit. Al Gore cost himself the presidency. He ran a pathetic campaign; he allowed Karl Rove & Co. to set the tone and the pace; he chose a sure loser as his running mate (Joe Lieberman: a Republican to Democrats and a Democrat to Republicans); and he couldn’t even carry his home state. Nader was responsible for none of that.
 
And then Gore rolled over and played dead while Poppy’s friends on the Supreme Court handed Florida to Bush. Nader did as well as he did because Gore made himself unacceptable to a significant portion of what should have been his constituency. I have to admit that Bush has been vastly worse than I could have imagined in 2000. And I am certainly aware of Ralph Nader’s faults — hell, some of his best qualities are his faults. But I am tired of hearing this crap about him being the reason Gore lost. I wish the Green Party was powerful enough to swing a national election, but Ralph Nader was not the reason for Gore’s loss.

George Cruze
Providence

Bad education
Regarding your March 23 editorial “High Time for High Principles,” the court ruled in the Tinker decision that students and teachers do not surrender “freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” But that is exactly what they do. Mom drops off the kids at school, and from then on it is “do not talk out of order during class; keep the noise down; sit straight; and no guns.” If you break the rules, you get detention (kidnapping). School is not a place to express yourself but to learn. When in high school, keep the speech to yourself; there are minors present.

Roland Parks
Chico, California

Frog prince
To the Right Honorable “Big Fat Whale,”

Having complained about an earlier cartoon, I thought I owe it to you to applaud your “Tropical Island Toadies” vacation ad (News and Features, April 6). I particularly enjoyed: “I had a blast putting clothes on all the savages.”

I do have a request, though: could we please, please have a preview of the toads hopping off Hillary or Obama’s ship four years from now? Deval Patrick complimenting the “you could hear a tip drop” quality of the island’s phone service, perhaps?

Darrell Hartwick
Newton

Two of a feather
Get your facts before you scare up untruths about Mitt Romney. I am a Christian and belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (or as you call us “Mormons”). Go to the lds.org site if you really want to find facts about our church. Mitt is the only one running for president who has had only one wife and is a decent, moral man. Go to his Web site to read about his many accomplishments. He comes from a long heritage of fine, upstanding ancestors, which is more than I can say about your left-leaning remarks that have no basis in truth, as usual.

Carolyn Meinhardt
Hendersonville, North Carolina

An appropriate elegy
Your article about famed music producer Joe Boyd ("Éminence Grise," Music, March 30) is excellent. Kudos to Dana Kletter for figuring out Boyd’s rightful place in music history.

Jason Gross
New York

Editor’s note
Adam Reilly’s April 6 article on Barstool Sports contained two errors: Massachusetts unemployment insurance is funded by taxes on businesses, not individuals; and Barstool writer Jamie Chisholm isn’t named “Jerry.”

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